Excellent review, Foy! It appears the driver is only working during med and low mode, and is DD in high. Good heavans don't put an IMR cell in this light!
Despite that, it's pretty...it's bright... and I find myself wanting one
Mine tail stands, I simply added an o-ring to the rubber boot on the switch it gives just enough clearance. I would also like to add that the driver on mine failed and I am currently waiting on Manafont for a replacement.
All we need now is for someone to accurately measure the lumen output of this bad boy to see how much extra light vs heat it is pumping out. Everyone has always said that over 3.0A the XM-L only puts out more heat and not much more light. Your 980 seems to slap that theory in the face.
Considering that you’d be unlikely to use it in high mode except for show and only for short periods I don’t think it would burn out the emitter too prematurely. What I’d worry about more is the emitter desoldering itself from it’s base. Considering how the temps Foy recorded only vary 10 degrees from the head to the tail cap I’d say this torch is VERY well heat sinked…rather amazingly, really. What I’d like to know is how many minutes until the temp stabilizes on high. If it ramps up to 150 in 5 minutes and is still there after 15 minutes then I’d not worry too much about it dying too quickly from heat.
Well if standard life of XML is about 50000 hours (over 5,5 years) and because of overdriving it is reduced to lets say fifth, it would still be 10000 hours, which is over one year. I'd say it's enough for most.
I would want a light like this but I'm far too deep in the DIY madness to buy a ready-made light. No. I must try to build one myself, fail, get 1st degree burn trauma in the process, start a mild fire, breathe toxic fumes from bursting Li-ion cells, blind my other eye by looking directly at it and spend hundreds of euros doing so. Before ordering this light from a vendor. That's how I roll.